 Hey y'all, what's up? My name is Sonali. Welcome to my channel if you are new. Today I'll be talking about 10 ways to get your first photography client in a new city. Before we get into the video, I wanted to give a quick background about my photography and videography career. I graduated in May of 2019 from the University of Central Florida with a major in radio, television broadcasting. So my major didn't really relate to what I'm doing now because I actually went the generalist track, but I feel like the production track definitely would have taught me more things about lighting and other stuff, especially about videography. So I definitely had to learn a lot of what I know from the outside experiences, which was totally fine. I made my YouTube channel in 2013 and I was really obsessed with just getting really good quality videos. So I started investing into really good camera lenses and camera bodies. In senior year of high school, I started taking photos of my friends and just kind of like learning more about cameras and photography. And then I went to college and joined a sorority and there was a role on exec called the Vice President of Public Relations and I was kind of pushed to be an assistant for it because I already had a lot of the knowledge for that role. And in this role is really where my passion stood out to me of photography and videography because I took pictures of my sisters and filmed and helped produce the recruitment videos. So that got me super into videography and then I had a bunch of other jobs during college that just really helped me explore that passion. Now I'm 23 years old in Austin, Texas. Unfortunately I had to start from square one because I didn't really know anyone here in Austin. So I definitely had to build up my clients here and it definitely took a lot of hard work and effort but I'm finally starting to see the results. So today I gathered up all of my tips and advice to help you guys get your first client in a new city because I have learned what to do and what not to do and I just wanted to share it with you guys so that your process is a lot smoother than mine was. Number one is to make an Instagram and or portfolio. I'm in Instagram and college just to have a place to showcase my work and to put my work somewhere because at the time I didn't really use a hard drive or have anywhere to back up my photos so I wanted to just put them somewhere. So in case anyone asked to see my work I can just pull it up super fast. I actually just made my photography website I think about like two months ago so before that I was getting my clients all through word of mouth or my Instagram and a big tip I have for y'all is to use hashtags just kind of get over that they look very cluttered because they help so much. I've had so many people say that they found me through hashtags and looking back at it it's crazy how many clients I've gotten through just Instagram DMs because I made the Instagram just for fun and not really to get any leads so it's really cool that that happened but now that I have my website I do have a contact form that sends right to my email so people can just you know put all their information in there and contact me that way. I definitely still recommend creating a portfolio of all your favorite pictures because it just looks a little bit more professional in case like a really big client is asking for a portfolio it just makes you look a lot better. I highly recommend using Pixyset. I know that they offer the first few gigabytes for free literally all you have to do is upload your photos and if you want to you can move around your photos in case you have like your favorite all time photo you can put it in the top corner so that your future client can see that one first. Number two is to make business cards and bring them everywhere. If you're out shooting downtown there might be people just taking their daily walks and kind of curious of what you're doing and like who you are and they might ask you if you do family photography or you know anything else that they may be looking for you never know who you can meet shooting so I always make sure I have my business cards in my camera bag especially during corporate events or weddings. Number three if you haven't already I highly recommend to reach out to past clients for reviews. When you do get future clients that are interested in working with you they will most likely stock all your social platforms including your Facebook page and your website so you definitely want to have some reviews to show that you have been doing it for a while and even if you are just starting out I highly recommend just you know offering a shoot for your friend and asking them to write a review but make sure to ask clients that you know will write you a pretty long review not like a paragraph or something but like more than one sentence or like more than two words because I've definitely gotten reviews that just say great job like loved my photos and I feel like that's not enough to make a future client be like wow I have to hire this photographer so definitely make sure you're asking the right people I always ask clients to write reviews on my Facebook page and then I pull my favorites and add them to my website just so they're in two places and it's easier to find. Number four is to sign up for any of those freelance sites like thumbtack or Upwork. These are sites that you can make a profile on and explain your services and then future clients will kind of look through browse through all the photographers in the area or you know it can literally be for anything like if you're a freelance graphic designer if you're a videographer, photographer I personally signed up for thumbtack right when I got to Austin just to get the ball rolling. I don't love it because you had to pay for everyone who messaged you back. So basically if somebody wanted to inquire about a family portrait session and then I messaged them back saying great like how many people are in the session and then I can quote you if they messaged me back I have to pay for that lead even if they don't actually hire me. So it was kind of annoying because I was losing like a good amount of money because the amount you have to pay is like a good percentage of that quote. Needless to say I did get a few clients from these I honestly booked my first wedding through this so that was pretty cool. And I definitely think it's good to get the ball rolling especially if you're in a new city and you don't really know how to meet people and you're not the best at going to networking events and stuff like that. I will say I found that people that are on these sites are probably looking for a more affordable photographer. So if you are already set in stone in your race then maybe this isn't the thing that you should do but I just thought I would throw it in this video just in case you guys don't know about it already. Number five is to just DM people through Instagram. So when I first moved to Austin I followed a bunch of small businesses mostly boutiques because I was trying to do like small video packages or photography to up their social media game. I honestly didn't really get any clients through this but I think it's a great way to be on someone's radar in the future. Number six is to go door to door. If you have business cards and enough confidence then you can go to different businesses and offer your services face to face. I honestly always wanted to do this especially when I didn't have a part-time job and had a lot more time on my hands but I check and doubt or I just didn't have business cards at the time but if you are gonna do this I would highly recommend going in there with a flyer or a rate card just so that they know exactly what you were trying to offer them. Even if you don't get clients right then and there it's still really good like I said to be on their radar. Number seven is to offer free shoot. This is a huge one. I moved to Texas thinking like oh my work's good enough like why aren't people inquiring? Why aren't people paying me? But it's just because no one really knew about me here and it does take a while to establish your business in a new city. It sucks but it's true. Obviously if you're a wedding photographer don't give away a full wedding but maybe start by giving away free engagement shoots and hopefully they'll book you for their wedding in the future. You're probably wondering what the heck is giving away a free shoot going to do for me? Well we're gonna hope that these clients tell their friends or post on social media and tag your photos. I would definitely recommend to make sure that they know to tag your photos especially if you are giving a free shoot. When I was in college I was really into photographing and filming Greek life events so I decided to ask sorority girls if they wanted to do like a bestie shoot or just like a portrait session and some of these girls ended up referring me to their sorority and I ended up getting a good amount of gigs from it so you never know who you can meet and what they can do for you. Number eight is to follow and connect with other local photographers. I started following other photographers here in Austin when I knew I was gonna move here because I just wanted to see like all the cool locations that they were shooting at and just like the style here in Austin because it's definitely different from Georgia and Florida. I also reached out to some photographers to do some head shot swaps and they were actually so fun. I highly recommend doing this because it's mutually beneficial when you get content for your social media. It's also just really great to meet people in person because if they like you enough and they are booked on a day that the client needs them then maybe and hopefully they will refer them to you. Number nine is to network. I hit the ground running when it came to networking right when I moved here. I think it's just all about meeting the right person and them telling their friends about you and after that it's just like a domino effect because of word of mouth. But like I previously said always be prepared with your business cards especially when you're going to these networking events. The last piece of advice I have for y'all is to join your local Facebook groups. Aside from Instagram I'm beginning a lot of photography and videography gigs from these Facebook groups. When I moved to Austin I found out there were Facebook groups for just like wedding photographers. So I posted in there to ask if anyone needed a second shooter. So I got some second shooter gigs out of that and then there was this other Facebook group. I think it's called like Austin photographers models and they will sometimes post job opportunities there. And if you're ever wanting to just be creative and you know not worry about getting paid you can always ask the models in there if they want a TEFP shoot which is just basically like you get a model for free and they get their photos done for free which is definitely fun if you have the time. I listened to a podcast that has so many listeners and their main Facebook group has like I wanna say like 40,000 people in it and they have all these subgroups and there's actually one for like Austin listeners. So I joined that one and I think like the one time I posted about my photography it was for Christmas mini sessions and they literally booked up a whole day so I had to do a second day which was amazing. So I really just recommend joining all the Facebook groups you can but just make sure not to be like super spammy because either you're gonna get kicked out or the admin will probably delete your posts so only really post about your photography when you really need to. So those were 10 ways on how to get your first freelance client in a new city. I hope you guys found this video helpful. You can follow me on Instagram to see my work at Sonali Productions and I just made a photography website. I haven't technically launched it yet because of all this coronavirus stuff and no one really wanting to like book during this time so I just thought it was a weird time to launch but I will soon be officially announcing it on my Instagram which is really exciting and I'm obsessed with the layout because I customized everything and it's so cute. So definitely check out those links down below and let me know what you guys do. If you are a freelancer, if you're a photographer, videographer, graphic designer, anything leave that in the comments down below and I'll see y'all in my next video. Bye.